Beverage bottles and cans are generally filled with a beverage via a batch process. The beverage components (usually concentrate, sweetener, and water) are mixed in a blending area and then carbonated if desired. The finished beverage product is then pumped to a filler bowl. The containers are filled with the finished beverage product via a filler valve as the containers advance along the filling line. The containers then may be capped, labeled, packaged, and transported to the consumer.
As the number of different beverage products continues to grow, however, bottlers face increasing amounts of downtime because the filling lines need to be changed over from one product to the next. This can be a time consuming process in that the tanks, pipes, and filler bowl must be flushed with water before being refilled with the next product. Bottlers thus are reluctant to produce a small volume of a given product because of the required downtime between production runs.
Not only is there a significant amount of downtime in changing products, the downtime also results when adding various types of ingredients to the product. For example, it may be desirable to add an amount of calcium to an orange juice beverage. Once the run of the orange juice with the calcium is complete, however, the same flushing procedures must be carried out to remove any trace of the calcium. As a result, customized runs of beverages with unique additives simply are not favored given the required downtime.
Thus, there is a desire for an improved high speed filling system that can quickly adapt to filling different types of products as well as products with varying additives. The system preferably can produce these products without downtime or costly changeover procedures. The system also should be able to produce both high volume and customized products in a high speed and efficient manner. There is also a desire to produce a mix of flavors or beverages simultaneously.